Joint press point

Thank you so much, Defence Minister Martin Glváč. It’s a great honour, and a great pleasure to be here. And thank you for your warm welcome.

I have been in Slovakia before, but this is my first visit as Secretary General of NATO.

And I would like to start by thanking Slovakia for being a staunch and a committed Ally. And for your contributions to our collective defence, to our shared security, and to also our assurance measures and to our operations in Afghanistan. And for Slovakia being a staunch and committed Ally for many, many years.

I very much appreciate the meeting we had today, because you were able to convey many important pieces of news to me, which are, once again, confirming your strong commitment to our Alliance.

The fact that you are increasing your defence budget is of great importance for the Alliance. It enables us to face together a changed and more demanding security environment.

We see to the east, a more assertive Russia, responsible for violating international law, illegally annexing Crimea and destabilising Eastern Ukraine.

And to the south we see a completely different challenge. The violence, the turmoil related to ISIL and all the instability we see in Iraq, Syria and North Africa. And all this requires that we adapt, and that’s exactly what we are doing.

We are increasing the readiness of our forces. We are doubling the size of the NATO Response Force. And last week I had the honour of inaugurating one new small headquarters in Lithuania. And that’s one of six new headquarters we are establishing in the three Baltic countries, in Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland.

And all of this is a part of a plan. And examples of how NATO is now implementing the biggest reinforcement of our collective defence since the end of the Cold War.

And Slovakia is playing its part contributing to this adaptation of our Alliance.

We remain very concerned over the situation in Ukraine. Therefore, I very much welcome the renewed commitment to a sustainable ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine. This offers a fresh opportunity for all parties to fully implement the Minsk Agreements. And I urge all parties to exercise restraint, and to pursue a solution to this crisis through diplomatic means. The best way forward for a peaceful solution in Ukraine is to implement fully the Minsk Agreements.

And Russia has a special responsibility to find a political solution. We call on Russia to stop its deliberate destabilization of Eastern Ukraine, through its political, political, military and financial support for militants.

And again, I commend Slovakia for being part of the joint efforts of NATO to provide political support for Ukraine, and also practical support for Ukraine. And we are doing that, because we support the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

We also, of course, addressed challenges we see to the south, and the importance of fighting ISIL. And all NATO Allies participate in the coalition fighting ISIL. And I welcome that because this is something which is a great challenge for all NATO Allies, and also for the Alliance.

So once again, thank you for welcoming me and my delegation here in Bratislava. It’s great to be together with you, and to continue to develop the excellent cooperation between NATO and Slovakia.

Q & A

QUESTION IN SLOVAK (Russia involvement in Ukraine)

SECRETARY GENERAL STOLTENBERG:

So Russia has a special responsibility to contribute to a political and negotiated solution. And we have seen that Russia, over a long time, has provided the separatists with military support, with training. They have, Russia has forces inside Eastern Ukraine. But in addition, they have a large number of forces on the border.

And of course, all of this increases tensions. It’s not very constructive when it comes to efforts to finding a peaceful solution.

But, as I said, I am encouraged by the fact that we have seen a renewed effort to respect the Minsk Agreements. And over the last days, we have seen very substantial decrease in violence, in fighting, in shelling.

And I think it provides us with the best possible platform for a renewed effort to make sure that the Minsk Agreements are fully implemented, meaning respect for the ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the contact line, and, not least, it is important to make sure that the international monitors have full access to the area so they can monitor and make sure that the Minsk Agreements are respected, and fully implemented.

QUESTION IN SLOVAK (defence spending)

SECRETARY GENERAL STOLTENBERG:

I think we have to remember that the decision in Wales, at our summit of Heads of State and Government of NATO last fall, was a decision about stopping the cuts. Because we have seen over many, many years that defence spending in, especially European NATO Allied countries, has gone down.

And in one way, this was possible to understand, because for many years, after the end of the Cold War, tensions in Europe went down. And when tensions decrease, of course it’s possible to understand that nations decreased defence spending. But when tensions and threats and security challenges increases, then it is important that we are able to again increase defence spending.

And therefore, the decision made in Wales was actually, in a way, three steps.

The first step is to stop the cuts. And Slovakia has now very strongly committed to at least stop the cuts.

The second step was to, as we said, gradually increase defence spending as our economies grow. Well, Slovakia has announced to start to increase defence spending, and also I very much welcome the fact that the economy of Slovakia is growing. That’s good for Slovakia, and I’m also actually impressed by the strong growth that Slovakia has been able to create in the economy. That’s good for Slovakia, it’s good for your economy; it’s good for employment. But it’s also good for the budget, and thereby Slovakia’s ability to invest more in defence.

And then the third thing was to aim at 2% over a decade. So I think that Slovakia is now doing the right thing. You have stopped the cuts, you have started to increase defence spending, and I expect you to aim at 2%.

But no-one expected any country to go from 1% to 2% in just a couple of years. This is something that will take some time, but Slovakia has started to move in the right direction, and I welcome it.